My work organized a month long art challenge with the theme “Rubbish Upcycled” and this was my entry! I had watched “Up” recently and was inspired by the idea of creating something useful out of trash. I loved the idea of creating something from waste and trash that was literally uplifting and almost hopeful in tone.
I wanted to focus on choosing items that could logically work together in terms of size, construction, and assembly. For example, in the original sketch (see below), I was thinking of using a matchstick to provide the flame. However once I realized matches burn quite quickly, I pivoted to using a birthday candle instead. The scale of it still worked and the logic made more sense. I also tried to choose materials for the patches that could realistically work and then join them together in believable ways—i.e tape for thick or plastic-like surfaces and stitching for softer fabrics.
I also wanted to focus on believable material properties, particularly in the subsurface scattering. It was super cool to see how much impact and realism it added!
Another thing I wanted to experiment with was using scanned images as a basis for textures. For the Lay’s bag, Starburst wrapper, bandana, and duct tape I used my photo scanner, AwesomeBump, and Photoshop to get a basis for the texture maps, then tweaked them in Substance Painter until I was pleased. It was a great learning exercise and helped me get to the image I had in mind within the timeline of the challenge.
Overall I’m happy with what I was able to do in the timeframe of the challenge. I set out to finish a piece from start to finish, and I think I accomplished my goal. Of course there are things I could spend hours fiddling with, but another goal was to not let perfection get in the way of completion.
Overall I’m happy with what I was able to do in the timeframe of the challenge. I set out to finish a piece from start to finish, and I think I accomplished my goal. Of course there are things I could spend hours fiddling with, but another goal was to not let perfection get in the way of completion.